Not surprisingly, Microsoft's use of (threats of) patent litigation give rise to a lot of comment on fora like the present one. The issue, however, is much broader than Microsoft, and users might find the perspective offered by James Surowiecki in his article *Exporting IP* ( http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2007/05/14/070514ta_talk_surowiecki) on the Financial Page of the 15 May issue of the *New Yorker* of help is sorting the issue out. Mr Surowiecki's article is succinct, but manages, despite its brevity, to shed a great deal of light on an abstruse subject, on which everyone seems to have - and to be expected to have an opinion - alas, not always well grounded. I recommend it highly !...
Henri 2007/5/15, John W. Kennedy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
Ganesha Bhaskara wrote: > On Mon, 2007-05-14 at 11:46 -0600, Robin Laing wrote: >> This is an on-going issue with MS and threatening OSS software but this >> is the most direct attack that I have seen yet. >> >> http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/05/28/100033867/index.htm >> >> MS states that OOo violates 45 MS patents. > > It is very likely M$'s malware magnet / spyware vector windoze operating > system and office applications infringes many patents owned by SUN, IBM, > HP etc. It will be interesting to see how companies choose to deal with > this patent thicket. Further, EU does not recognize many SW patents > which the US PTO does. And the US Supreme Court has just spanked the US PTO for issuing too many patents for the obvious, and reminded them that patents are supposed to encourage innovation, and not paralyze it. In the meantime, I'm hoping that SCO and their lawyers are sanctioned -- even disbarred. Maybe that will put the fear of God into MS and others that would emulate their impudent barratry. -- John W. Kennedy "Sweet, was Christ crucified to create this chat?" -- Charles Williams. "Judgement at Chelmsford" * TagZilla 0.066 * http://tagzilla.mozdev.org
